Hold Your Breath
by Tiruneko
Summary: Oh how they love to tell their bloody and distorted tales at sleep-overs, warning each other as they giggle in their pajamas at night, not to go near the house up by the creek, or he'll kill you, just like he killed her! Just like he killed his own sister! They'll laugh to each other. Only, that is a far twisted story. But aren't the most twisted tales the most interesting?
1. Oh How They Speak

_-__ Hold Your Breath__-_

_Oh How They Speak_

_-Insanity: _

_the condition of being insane; a derangement of the mind._

Oh how the people love to talk about him. Their rumors and mingling voices swirling into a pool, all blurring together, becoming one mass of meaningless chatter in his ears. Like listening to birds squawk at the zoo for hours on end. But then again, he's never been to the zoo. At least, not in this life. That's what he calls the time before, and after her. He calls them his different lives.

Oh what they love to say about him. The accusations, brutal, cruel things, things that would destroy his life… if he had one. She was his life, and the monster already took that from him.

Oh how they love to tell their bloody and distorted tales at sleep-overs, warning each other as they giggle in their pajamas at night, not to go near the house up by the creek, or he'll kill you, just like he killed her! Just like he killed his own sister! They'll laugh to each other. Only, that is a far twisted story.

Oh how little they know. But they've already- no not them, _she's _already ruined his life, so what's the point of complaining about the past? What's the point of wasting air on what he's already spent years screaming?

Well, because they're wrong. He answers the question himself. She didn't slip. Rin was pushed, and Rin was killed.

Oh how he wishes wish they would just listen to him. But everyone dismissed him as insane a long time ago. No matter how twisted, how farfetched the stories, people swarm around them, feeding into the lies and twisted tales. Because no one likes an unsolved mystery.

He turns onto his side in bed, clenching his fingers a little tighter into his palm, closing his eyes for just a moment, remembering her scent, and her sweet honey suckle voice in his ears. Slowly, and steadily, he forces himself into a sitting position, leaning against the back board of the boy's plain white bed with old sheets in desperate need of a wash.

A loud and sharp thumping noise echoes throughout his small bedroom.

"_Lenny!"_

Lifting his head slowly he expects to see _her, _but instead he sees her.

"Oi, you gonna get up eventually?" The spunky girl in his window calls, dangling just above the window by the gutters of the house. Honestly, he's beyond surprised that they haven't collapsed yet considering how many times she's done this. But then again, maybe Gumi, or whoever the girl is today, is just very lightweight, or some type of superhuman, which, Len wouldn't doubt.

The blonde boy with shoulder length hair pushes himself out of bed, rubbing his temples and wandering over to the window. Unfortunately, this window cannot be opened by him, so instead he sits in a chair just in front of it, watching the peculiar girl perch herself, almost like a bird, on the window sill just outside, her green hair swaying gently behind her.

The girl's name is Gumi, but she goes by a lot of other names. People around town have called her insane, just like they have to the blonde boy. Gumi was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder at three years old, but that doesn't mean she's insane. It just means, there's more of her. She says there are ten of her.

The first person inside Gumi is, Gumi. The natural personality, is what the boy calls it. When she is Gumi, her hair is green and she wears orange biking goggles on her head. When she is Gumi she always wears an orange leather jacket over a white tank top and a white ruffled skirt with a thin brown belt around the top. She wears orange sneakers and white socks.

The second person is Guma. Guma is quite different. She is the shy one, always hiding, speaking in a soft voice, averting her eyes. She always wears a black hoodie with the hood flipped up, and when she is Guma, she dyes her hair black. Gumi has every color of the rainbow in spray-in-hair-dye, and for each personality uses a different one. Guma wears white jeans and has grey headphones. It is rare that when she is Guma that she will come see the boy.

The rest are for a later time, for another purpose later. Today is one of the rare days where Gumi, is Gumi. So she wouldn't dare miss this opportunity to speak to the blonde boy.

"Len… you're sad today." Gumi says, swinging her feet back and forth.

"When am I not?" He responds grimly while tying his hair up into a high pony tail.

It was seven years ago, but things like that don't disappear so easily, do they?

Oh what they love to say about these two, oh how the people love to chatter. The two insane ones are plotting, plotting to wipe out the town 'ya know? They whisper up and down the quiet summer streets, while sitting out on café patios, sipping and enjoying morning coffee.

Oh how they love to talk don't they?

But he didn't kill Rin. Len didn't kill Rin. But Gumi knows that. And _she _knows that too. And that's why the blonde boy remains locked in this room, like a Cinderella in a sad and twisted tale.

But aren't the most twisted tales the most interesting?

She never really says much, but it's nice to know that someone knows Len exists. Because no one really thinks he does anymore. He's just another horror tale.

"You're sad today again Len." Gumi repeats, opening her palm and revealing a handful of dead grass and dried flower petals. Her voice is muffled drastically through the glass, but Len has gotten used to only speaking to people in this manner, and it ceases to bother him. The wind blows Gumi's assorted plants out of her palms and into the air.

"I… I dreamed about her again." Len whispers, needing to say the words, but hopping she wont hear.

"I dream about her every night Len." She responds. A car rides by on the seldom used road barely visible from Len's bedroom window. The window overlooks a large over grown green garden, with many hedges dotted with purple flowers and a crumbling bird fountain trickling steadily. A rotten swing set just across the yard haunts the forsaken boy. They played there all the time.

The car is a white van, with suitcases crammed to the roof and some strapped on top. Len snaps back out of his melancholy trance.

"Who's that?" He asks, pointing out the window. Gumi knows everyone and everything in this small town in the south, and if Gumi doesn't, one of her "faces" does.

"Oh, new neighbor moving in just up the hill. You know, where the Shimizus used to live? Some new family bought out their massive house and are fixing it up and going to live there. I think their names are… Hatsune? Yes I believe it's the Hatsune family."

The old Shimizu's place… that means these new neighbors will be on the other side of the creek.

"Len, Guma wants to tell you something." Gumi nearly gags, which is a sign she's fighting for control.

"Alright." He mumbles, rubbing his cheek to bring some feeling back into his sleepy and hollow face.

"…Len… I… I wanted to tell you…" Guma says, squirming in her place, uncomfortable with the outfit she is currently wearing. "…I went down to the creek a couple days ago, and… I could swear I saw her Len. She was sitting by the water, just like Gin said she would be. She wasn't lying."

Gin is another one of Gumi's personalities, you could call Gin her dark side. Categorized as simply as possible Gin could be summed up as "emo", so when Gumi told Len that Gin said she saw Rin as she walked past Len's house a few months ago, Gumi didn't buy it, and neither did any of the faces.

"I-I knew she wasn't lying."

Gumi looks at him, puzzled now that she is back in control. Some days are easier for Gumi to maintain her "sanity" but on others she has no control over who operates her body. This is one of the easy days.

"What?"

"I saw Rin. No, I see her, all the time, everywhere. Not like I… not like I see her, but I _see _her. Like I physically stare at her body, and hear her voice. I have ever sense she died Gumi."

"I keep telling you, you aren't crazy like everyone says. Neither of us are Len. You're giving into the rumors projected onto you. You're doing it subconsciously, you aren't insane."

"Len! Who are you speaking to?" _Her _voice yells from downstairs. Len's eyes widen with horror and he motions for Gumi to go. Immediately she jumps away from the window, sliding down the gutter and smacking into the grass, running out into the street and disappearing behind the tall hedges that act like fences.

"No one." He responds without emotion, moving away from the window and hurriedly jumping back into bed.

His door opens slowly, to reveal _her. _

"Respond to me appropriately." She seethes.

"No one, mother."

She closes the door behind her, and Len hears the lock turn. _She _is the one that killed Rin. _She _killed her, his mother killed his twin sister. But everyone thinks it is him.


	2. Not a Trace

**Thanks to my first reviewers for this story,  
**

**`theunhappytwins**

**`Lolly1o1**

**`zhane17**

**`Harmonian Traveller**

**Hope everyone is enjoying it so far, **

_**~Tiruneko ;3**_

* * *

_- Hold Your Breath-_

_Not a Trace_

The car door slams shut, momentarily silencing the chattering birds around the area. Their noises soon rise again, swelling and dropping, beautiful little songs played to no melody. The air conditioning in the car is broken, and in the sweltering heat of the packed car, the girl inside was sure she was going to die of heat stroke. She raises her pale hand to shield her face from the sun, whistling and mimicking the call of the sparrows and song birds hiding in the trees.

A bright and surging sun hangs over the landscape with almost a jungle feeling, the house, if not for its large and lavish size, would not be visible from helicopter through the bright green tree tops. The house is very large, with three stories and a large and oak double door leading inside. Being this large and magnificent you would think someone would have bought this house by now. An ideal, quiet, small town location, large yards and immense space between homes in a neighborhood, the exact opposite of the crowded suburb the girl came from. Maybe this is why she is so baffled by the fortune her mother had in finding this type of home in such a perfect and ideal location. But, on the other hand, this house has been vacant for two years now. Something like this has to make you wonder, right?

But oh well, the house was hers now, and who was she to complain?

"Miku, come help your father with the suit cases please!" The girl's mother calls out as she lifts a heavy orange suitcase out of the trunk and places it down on the gravel drive way. The girl's mother is truly a strikingly beautiful woman. She has light blonde hair reaching nearly to her knees and shockingly dark blue eyes. Her skin is fair, but not pale, with a natural pink flush to her cheeks. She has on an orange tank top and grey fabric shorts, her most comfortable clothes for their long trip.

The girl standing in front of the house turns, sending a cascade of teal hair swishing in the air behind her as she calls back, "Alright!", and starts of jogging back towards the car. After they had pulled up, truly in awe of the location and home, the teal haired girl had bounded eagerly up the drive way, nearly running onto the white porch of the home. The porch seemed so unrealistic and old it looked as if it was plucked straight out of a movie from the late eighties or early nineties and glued right on the front of the immaculate home.

The girl skids to a stop just before she comes crashing into the white van with suitcases tied on top. Her hair is of ungodly length, going farther than her knees when pulled up into two pig tails. Her eyes are a deep blue, like those of her mother's, but her hair is a sea green and sky blue-ish color, which she gets from her father. Her stature is skinny and tall, with a not too pale complexion and always dry and cracked pink lips. Her eyes are bold and draw attention with little to no makeup. The clothes she wears are simple and modest, thin black sweat pants and a baggy white T-shirt over a black tank top. The white T-shirt has the logo for her favorite sushi restaurant back home, called Tako-Luka, gourmet sushi. She has on a lone fake-golden necklace with a musical eighth note as the charm as the last touch to her basic outfit. Her sandals, lastly, are red. Her name, is Miku Hatsune, named after her father, Mikuo Hatsune.

Miku reaches for her army green duffle bag in the back seat of the car, swinging it over her shoulder and following her father at his heels to the porch of the house. Impatiently, she watches her father fumble with the many keys on his key ring, searching and sorting through for the right one. With a sigh she mumbles, "Hurry up, it's so hot out here dad!"

"Hang on, I think this is the right one." The man is tall and fairly muscular, with long scraggly hair in desperate need of a cut, and plain and simple brown eyes. His skin is slightly tan from all the work on the old house before they moved. He has on a plain dark blue shirt and beaten up and worn jeans.

The door to the house suddenly swings open sending a blast of air into Miku's face. She slouches, realizing the air, is not cold, but the exact opposite.

"How is the air in the house _hotter_ than the air outside? Is it even possible to be hotter in there than out here?" She groans, stomping into the dark, dusty, and empty living room.

"I just got a call from the movers, they got delayed by an accident on the interstate but they'll be here soon." Miku's mother says, appearing in the doorway.

"Alright Seeu." Her father says, planting a kiss on his wife's head. "The house truly is amazing." He adds at the end, turning on the lights. They surge on with a burst of energy, then gradually dim, all of them eventually evening out to the same steady and lifeless yellow glow.

"How about just open some windows?" Her mother suggests, moving over to one of the longer and larger windows in the room and drawing open the heavy and dusty crimson red curtains. She coughs and gags as dust flies up into the air, and squints at the sudden change in lighting.

Miku wanders back outside and into the driveway through her coughing and sputtering, sitting down on the weathered porch steps, tuning out the din made by her parents as they argue uselessly over what new color of curtains would be best, and where they would put the couch and how much wood they would need for the fireplace in the winter and so on and so forth. Miku digs in her pocket for her cell phone, and upon drawing it from her pocket is dismayed to find it has no signal. With a loud grunt she blows a piece of hair out of her eyes, then the noise comes.

It is a trickling or rushing of water that had been inaudible to her before through her complaints and the noise of luggage getting tossed about in the car. She stands slowly, inching her way back into the house and poking her head into the door.

"Mom, I think I hear running water outside." She points out, trying to draw her mother's attention away from the hideous rug in the hallway, but she continues rambling away. "Mom?", Miku calls again, gently rapping her fingers gently on the wooden doorframe.

"-and this light is just hideous, I talked to the realtor about getting it replaced but I think he said something along the lines of us being able to find a more suitable one to our tastes at a local hardware store versus the limited selection his remodeler has- Mikuo, what on earth is that noise? Is there some sort of animal outside? Gosh it's driving me crazy-"

"Mom!" Miku yells loudly, scaring a flock of birds nearby out of the tree tops.

"Mm?" Her mother asks turning. "Do you hear that tapping to Miku- oh now it's gone, huh I wonder-"

"Mom, it was me. I think I-"

"Oh seriously Miku, don't act so childish, I thought I was going to have to call an exterminator of some sort, for crying out loud you do nothing but add to my stre-"

"Mom! Listen for a second, I think I heard running water outside." Miku says exasperated, pointing out towards the lush yard.

"Oh of course you did sweetie, there is a creek just a little ways away from the back yard-"

"And you didn't tell me!" Miku cries, running through the house to the back door, kicking up an assortment of dust as she goes. Where ever there is a creek on a hot day, there is cool water and shade, that Miku knows for sure.

She has always been the outdoors-y type. Miku was head of the track team back at her old school, and was always down by the park either riding her bike or swimming in the lake. She was going to miss that lake, but now with the new found knowledge of the creek not too far from her own back yard, she was ecstatic. Yes, summer was definitely her favorite time of year. Her hands grip the handle to the back door, pulling it open with difficulty, the tracks it slides open on being filled with an assortment of dead spiders and crickets. A trail of black ants run past her feet as she jumps off the back steps, running down a nearly hidden, but still visible, stone path through the heavy foliage, towards the sound of the water.

Soon she is met by a set of old wooden stairs down a small embankment. Just a few yards from the base is the creek. The creek is a lot larger than Miku expected it to be. If she laid down, with her feet at the shore and her head facing the water, it would take three of her to cover the whole length of the water, and Miku is unusually tall for her age. Un-wavered by the deep yet inviting appearance of cool water in the middle of the dizzying heat, she kicks off her sandals, leaving them sitting amongst reeds and large stones, shiny from the splashes of water that occasionally crash into their sides. Miku rolls up her pant legs, and jumps off of one of these large rocks, splashing into the rushing water, and nearly losing her balance. The wet sand bellow her feet seeps through her toes like at the beach, but unlike the beach, as the sand washes away, her feet sink onto the large stones lining the bottom of it. She closes her eyes, leaning back on a rock just behind her and letting the water rush up to her knees. When she re opens them she spots a figure.

A small figure, probably that of a child, stands at the opposite edge of the creek, about six or seven yards to Miku's right, making it hard to see the figure clearly through the heavy green foliage. The figure is wearing some type of dark shorts and a plain, lighter tank top. The now curious teal haired girl stands, and makes her way deeper into the water, still holding up her pants.

"Hello-o-o?" Miku calls out. The figure seems to not have even noticed Miku's presence. "Hey!" She calls again, still no response or even physical acknowledgement. Suddenly, Miku's foot slips on something bellow her, and her foot sinks at an angle in between rocks at the bottom of the creek. She was so enthralled with the person on the other side she hadn't even realized she had been swimming across instead of just wading, and she now finds herself shoulder deep in the water with her foot caught. "Augh!" She yelps, grabbing her ankle and trying to pull it out of the stones it's trapped under. Without warning a sudden panic creeps in with the failure of attempting to free her foot. Her other foot slips, landing her almost on her back, and splashing herself into the water.

Miku flails in the water, realizing she has suddenly become completely submerged with one foot stuck, and also realizing, she is alone. She pulls and pulls on her foot, although blinded by the sand and muck filled rushing water, and rushed by the lack of air flow to her lungs. Her foot, with one surge of energy, becomes freed, and she claws through the water, barely breaking the surface in time. She turns onto her back, letting the creek carry her a little ways down the water, before she regains herself enough to sit up and swim back to shore.

Swimming upstream is very difficult, not to mention while wearing utterly soaked clothing, but in time Miku feels her hand make contact with a large rock, and she pulls herself up on top of it. Using her hands to pull herself off of the bank and onto the sandy and reed ridden shore, she flops onto her back, squinting her eyes to avoid the harsh glare of the sun as she sputters to regain her breath. She makes a panting noise similar to that of a donkey, a type of, "hee-hoo-hee-hoo" as she lies there.

Gradually, as her adrenaline rush begins to wear off, she pushes herself up into a sitting position. Her foot aches from being bent between a hard place at an angle, but it is far from being broken or even sprained or dislocated, just sore. Her necklace is tangled with a long string of hair, and she lost one of her pony tails to the river, leaving a lop sided and nearly-drowned-kitten style to her mass of teal hair. She is a decent walk away from where she got into the water originally, but her red sandals and bright green phone are still visible. She looks across the creek and a little ways to the right to find the child-like figure, still standing there, watching the water wash by from its perch on a particularly jagged rock, that probably is a little too dangerous for a child to be playing on by themselves.

"Hey, you, on the rock!", Miku shouts, cupping her hands over her mouth for a mega-phone effect to her voice, "It's dangerous there by yourself, you should come down before you get hurt! Those rocks are slippery and the water is fast and deep!" But the figure makes no visible sign that its heard Miku's shouts of warning.

With a sigh Miku clenches her eyes shut to rub an eye lash out of them, then stands to swim across and help the figure, but upon re opening her eyes, she is shocked to find the figure is gone. Completely and utterly disappeared, seemingly into thin air, not even a trace of the figure remained, not even the sway of the tree branches behind her to signal that she had simply run off through them. Not even any tracks in the sand that Miku could see from where the girl might have run off. Not a trace of her was there.

"I can't believe I nearly drowned for nothing." Miku mutters a little bitterly, turning to go back to her new house, already beginning to warm up under the sweltering heat of the mid day sun.


	3. A Word of Warning

**Thanks to everyone for reading so far! Sorry, for not updating, been very busy recently, but I finally managed to get this posted, so enjoy!**

**Thanks To Reviewers:**

**`zhane 17**

**`Lolly 1o1**

**`HumanAtHeart**

_**~Tiruneko ;3**_

* * *

_-Hold Your Breath-_

_A Word of Warning  
_

Miku stands in the chaos that is her new bedroom. Boxes and bags and assorted bins and storage units are carelessly strewn all around the floor, furniture remains covered and taped up in the plastic bubble wrap and various items she had left separate from any boxes or bags in the car, lie randomly around the room.

"That's dad for ya'." Miku sighs, flopping down on her mattress, the movers still haven't brought the bed frame in yet. Her hair is dripping and soaking wet, and still tangled and matted from her ordeal in the creek, but afraid of her mother seeing, Miku had snuck in through the backdoor while her mother was outside ordering around sweaty and exhausted men, telling them precisely where each piece of furniture should go, and then changing her mind completely and making them move it all over again. Which means while she was outside barking orders, her father was left with the task of moving all of Miku's possessions into her bedroom, which means, things were missing, and things that simply just didn't belong there were also here. The new hardwood floor in her room was now dust ridden, and soaked thoroughly from her slow footsteps as she attempted, in vain, not to get anything she owned wet. The downside of having hair as long as she does is it never really dries.

Finally Miku finds her duffle bag and pulls it open, grabbing out her only other outfit inside, a black, spaghetti strap tank top with small red stripes vertically across, and blue Capri jeans, which will undoubtedly be nothing but uncomfortable in today's scorching heat, but quickly she swaps out clothing, and finishes tying her hair back up. With a dry bored sigh she opens up her bedroom door, dreading the feat of unpacking, and trudges out into the hallway. The house has way too many rooms than the small family needs, but that leaves Miku with more space, and who can complain about that?

"Oh Miku, which location do you think is better for the couch? Here or here?", her mother asks in a rushed tone, gesturing wildly across the room, so that you can't even tell which location is which. For all Miku knows, her mother could have been gesturing to the kitchen, or even outside.

"Uh, I like the second one better." Miku offers, knowing if she pointed out how her mother was acting it would only frustrate and upset her.

"Really?" Her mother sighs, letting her arms drop to her side and slouching slightly. Within moments her mother has righted herself and has begun barking even more demanding orders at the poor movers just trying to do their jobs. "All righty boys!" Her mother claps her hands together, then places one hand on her left hip and points sharply with her other hand to a location under the large window in the living room. "Go with the first location!" She cries with a smile.

Miku sighs deeply under her breath, slowly shaking her head and continuing to trudge down the stairs and out the door into the heat once again. There she finds her father helping one of the younger looking movers with a name tag reading Yuma lift her desk out of the back of the large moving truck. With a quick sweep of the landscape Miku spots her bike leaning against the side of the house and immediately gets an idea to escape from the chaos and moving demon that is, her mother. Why her mother enjoys moving, she will never understand.

"Dad!" Miku yells from the porch. "I'm taking my bike and riding around the neighborhood!"

"Okay, be careful!" He calls back with immense strain in his voice as he tries desperately not to drop the heavy glass desk on his foot. The desk is one of the expensive and upscale ones, the kind that has a glass top and smaller glass tiers connected by rot iron bars. Miku cherishes that desk, and would be devastated if anything were to happen to it. She stands the blue bike up from its position lying in the grass besides the plastic basketball hoop and a opened box of tools marked GARADGE on the side. She adjusts herself on the old bike, getting comfortable on the truly uncomfortable seat.

"Oi, is she going down the street or up? I heard, a few years ago when I was moving a family into an area not too far from here, that in the house just down the street, this little boy killed his sister by bashing her head against a rock in a creek, and then he let her body float all the way down it, until the poor girl's mutilated body eventually got caught in a storm drain a little ways out of town almost three whole days after! But he was so young, that the jury convicted him not guilty. Honestly, it boils my blood thinking they let people like that walk free, child or not they should be punished to the highest extent of the law… According to the story he still lives in that house with his mother. Poor woman, must still be so devastating to her to have lost her little girl and then having to live and still care for a _monstrosity _like that. So you be careful riding up and down the street by yourself like your father says. I'd hate to hear of another pretty young body turning up in the gutter." The young looking man named Yuma says suddenly, telling the story briefly as they walk out of the truck and past the girl into the house.

The story, no matter how brief it is, sends chills racing down Miku's spine, especially the park about the creek. _No, no, it must not be the same one I fell in… it just can't be. _Miku hopes bitterly as she rides the bike out of the driveway and onto the less shaded and winding down hill road. Her bike picks up speed, racing down the asphalt like a race car. The feeling is so free that it nearly pushes every thought about the killer down the street out of mind. Nearly. As the bike races past the house next door, the one supposedly where a killer lives, Miku spots a figure waving to her just up the road. She slows her bike steadily, and breathes a sigh of relief to see it isn't a vicious sister-killer, but a girl with florescent green hair and orange biking glasses. Miku, being the social butterfly she is, skids her bike to a stop at the curb beside the waving girl.

"Hiya' names Gumi Megapoid, but you can call me Guma, Gin, Gena, Gumya, Gulli, Ginna, Gerra, Gumo, or Gerin. Depends on what mood I'm in that day, anyways, heard you moved in up the street, Hatsune right?" The girl rambles, counting off each name she goes by on her fingers.

"Uh- I-ya- Mi-"

"Shy huh? Meeh, don't matter to me. You live on the other side of the creek, ne Mi?"

"I uh, no!" She shouts.

"Ya' don't? Coula' sworn…"

"No, I mean I'm not shy, just winded from riding my bike up here, and yes I do live on the other side of the creek, and my name isn't Mi, its Miku. Miku Hatsune." Miku spills out, talking at her highest speed to even attempt to get a word in.

"Ahh, I see. Sheesh you talk fast Miku!" She lets out a small laugh, it was dry and nearly void of any true delight or entertainment, but still Gumi laughed still the same. Probably at the irony of the situation, her telling Miku she talked fast n' all, or maybe it was just a Gumi thing, like the way she never announces herself or calls in advance if she decides to come visit you, or the way she bows before a cashier whenever she leaves a store, or like the way she always whispers when she talks on the phone, or like the way the smiles before she is about to cry, or like the way she always starts talking very slowly whenever a situation becomes awkward, or like the way she will never make eye contact with her siblings. The list could go on infinitely, or you could just label Gumi, or who ever she is that day as plain weird.

"You live nearby?" Miku asks, leaning forward on the handle bars of her bike.

"Erm-m-m-m- Not really no, I live about a thirty five minutes' walk from here, if I walk fast."

"Eh! Wow that's far, why do you come all the way up here then?"

"Ta' meet someone, I try and see them as much as possible ya' know? There aren't a lot of people that I know down by my place." Miku notices how as Gumi talks her eyes seem to dart around quite a lot, and she gesticulates when she speaks.

_Maybe it's a sign of nervousness… _Miku thinks to herself. But actually, it is something a lot more telling of Gumi's personality. Or, more accurately put, Gumi's personalities.

"Oh, I see. How'd you hear that my family was moving in up the road?" Miku asks, a little unnerved by her unexplained knowledge.

"You'll come to realize that nothing stays secret in this town, especially when it concerns this neighborhood. The people here love to talk, but I guess that's just a symptom of small-town-disorder. That's how some stories end up coming so public and widespread around here. No one likes to keep quiet for too long, if they have something valuable enough to say." Tentatively, Gumi rocks back and forth on one foot with her hands clasped behind her back, looking directly at the new girl.

"Yeah, the same thing happened in my home town once. This kid named Oliver, boy was he talked about. I almost felt bad for the poor kid, but if you end up telling Meiko Sakine you like her…" Miku pauses to shake her head and breathe a heavy sigh. "…that _never _goes away."

"Mm, but I mean big things Miku, big things, not small suburb rumors; this is small town clamor, much worse and more… pointedly vicious."

"Oh… I see." She responds quietly, remembering the story the mover told briefly. "I uh, it was nice to meet you Gumi!" Miku says kindly, straightening up on her bike and flipping the kick stand up. "Oh wait!" Miku calls just before Gumi begins to walk away. "Just wondering, do any young kids live around here? I could swear I saw a younger kid playing down by the creek earlier this afternoon and I was wondering if you knew who it was, so you could tell them to be careful. They were standing really close to the edge on one of those huge jagged rocks, I tried to swim across to warn them, but I didn't really make it."

With the words, "younger kid playing down by the creek" Gumi's eyes widened immediately, snapping with almost a sharp, immediately almost fearful glare, but she still kept the fake mask of a smile, something she is good at.

"So Gin wasn't lying…" she whispers quietly to herself. "Sure, sure, I think I know just who you're talking about, I'll be sure to tell her brother about it. But if I could say one thing, a word of advice if you may, Miku, don't swim down in the creek by yourself anymore. It's a very dangerous place ya' know? And if a woman with yellow hair happens to approach you, stay very far away, and heaven forbid you tell her where you live, got it?"

"Huh? Yes I-"

"Got it?" Gumi interrupts, getting up in Miku's face and pointing a finger in her face, repeating her question sternly and slowly.

"Y-yeah, I'll remember. Thank you Gumi." Miku replies, starting to ride her bike out of the corner it is stopped on.

"Man was she weird." Miku mumbles with a slightly concerned air under her breath as she rides back up the hill to her new house.


End file.
